Statistics from the San Antonio Heart Study, a quarter-century-long
community-based epidemiologic study conducted at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, paradoxically suggest that the more diet sodas a person drinks, the greater the chance that he or she will become overweight or obese. Extra weight is a strong risk factor for the development of type 2 diabetes.
“On average, for each diet soft drink our participants drank per day, they were 65 percent more likely to become overweight during the next seven to eight years, and 41 percent more likely to become obese,” said Sharon Fowler, M.P.H., faculty associate in the division of clinical epidemiology in the Health Science Center’s department of medicine. She presented the finding June 12 in San Diego at the American Diabetes Association’s 65th Annual Scientific Sessions.
Fowler’s colleague, Ken Williams, M.S., assistant professor of clinical
epidemiology, found that regular soft drinks were no longer significantly linked to the incidence of becoming overweight or obese, but diet soft drinks were.